I let out a gasp of shock, stepping back as I stared at the hanging corpse in front of me.

There was a rope around an unnoticeable pipe on the ceiling, the end tied in a noose. It was around the neck of Reiko Fujikawa, and her body was suspended lifelessly above the ground.

"She's... dead." I looked across the hall to see Kimiko standing there, looking as horrified as I felt.

"Kimi... what's going on...?" Yukiko muttered sleepily as she exited the door across from mine, which I knew was Kimiko's room. As soon as she stepped out, her blue eyes widened in shock and she quickly cowered behind the redhead. "Jesus Christ..." She gasped.

As more and more people left their rooms to see what the commotion was about, I stopped paying attention. I hadn't known Reiko well, but she seemed like a genuine and kind person. Who would do this?

"I'm so proud of you!" Chou's voice exclaimed from the speakers. "Finally, someone died and it wasn't directly me killing them! This trial's gonna be a lot of fun~!"

"I'm not surprised, after seeing the consequences, of course someone killed..." Toki said quietly.

Chou laughed a bit. "Looks like my little show really did the trick!" She cleared her throat. "Anywho~ it's time for everyone to investigate! I put some files to help ya out in the dining room, so you're welcome! The trial will start when I feel like it. See ya there!"

Everything went quiet.

Kazuki approached the body with watery eyes, a small frown on his face. "No matter how many times I see this... I'll never get used to it. She didn't deserve this..." He let out a small sigh, looking down at the ground. "Just like her daughter... the first round...."

"Kazuki." Toki approached him, and with a small, sad smile, she reached out a hand to him. "Let's investigate together, just like before. We haven't failed yet, have we?"

Kazuki gave a small nod before taking her hand. "Yeah, you're right. Let's do this."

"Well, what're we standing around for? We don't have all the time in the world, let's get moving!" Aimi said, and a few people nodded.

While Tomi scaled the wall to untie the rope and let Reiko down, Satchiko approached me. She appeared troubled, but greeted me with a welcoming smile.

"Ikeda-chan, w-wanna investigate together? Katashi's being kinda clingy." She asked with a slight joking tone.

I nodded. "Sure... um... where do we start? I've never done this before...."

"I know how you feel, i-it's a lot of pressure." Satchiko sympathized. "B-but don't worry! I-I'm somewhat experienced... looks like the b-body'll be taken care of, let's check the dining room."

"Okay... I wanna get out of here anyways..." I replied with a slight nervous laugh, and headed to the dining room along with Satchiko.

Inside, there were fifteen papers laid out on the tables- one for each of us. Both Satchiko and I picked one up, and I read it over.

Reiko Fujikawa
Cause of death: snapped neck
Time of death: 2:27am
No other wounds or bruises.

"It doesn't say a lot..." I muttered, and Satchiko slowly shook her head.

"Well, a-at least we know the rope's the murder weapon... if her neck snapped she was definitely hung." The strawberry blonde replied. "It wasn't just made to look like that."

I nodded. "Right... I guess it's good to know...."

"W-we should look at the crime scene now, come on." Satchiko said before leading the way out of the room.

We headed back to the main hallway, and I was relieved that Reiko's body was now laid on the floor instead of suspended in the air. Everything else was left as it was before.

"I'll look at the body, y-you can look at the rest of the area..." Satchiko said before heading over to the corpse.

I nodded, doing as I was told as I took in the scene. Besides the body, there was a knocked over chair on the floor, and obviously the rope that was the murder weapon. There wasn't much to go off of.

"Okie dokie, I'm bored now!" Chou exclaimed from the speakers. "Come on over to the main room, and we can all have some fun!"